11th Annual Del Mar Goodguys Nationals - Great Times In Del Mar

Have you ever thought about skipping this year’s annual truck show or event or putting off that traditional vacation just because you did it last year? Well, for me this year marked the seventh Del Mar Goodguys show I have been to and I was thinking about not going. Then I picked up last year’s event coverage in Classic Trucks and remembered how many cool people I had the opportunity to meet, and also it was the first event I covered for Classic Trucks magazine. Talk about running around like a chicken with its head cut off. This year Riz and I decided that we should skip the Finest Five and take a breath of the fresh Del Mar sea air and go with the flow. Well, at least that was the plan anyway.

2/15

Friday started off with me parking in the rear parking lot where the old horse warm-up track was and where the September ’09 cover truck was shot. Before I even got out of my car I could hear the sound of Rob McKeown’s ’67 F-100 Ford pickup squealing its tires on the autocross course. If you missed the story on Rob’s truck (“The Evil Twin,” Oct. ’10), you can check it out on our website, Click Here To read the full article. Rob, like myself, got hooked on autocrossing his truck and has made some really great progress tuning his suspension with help from the vendors that were also racing.

This year also marked the 4th annual Goodguys Editor’s Challenge and I was not sure how to feel about the event since it would be my first time. Rob had said he would let me drive the ’67 Ford in the contest but the event organizers wanted to even out the playing field since the three-time defending winners from Camaro Performers were back to try and claim their fourth (they did). This year the editors would be driving vendors’ cars instead. Ride Tech’s ’69 Mustang, One-Lap/Optima’s ’68 Camaro, and Hotchkis’ ’68 Plymouth Roadrunner all performed well, that was up until the clutch in the Camaro fried. Detroit Speed’s Stacy and Kyle Tucker stepped up let to the editors finish their remaining laps with their car. The editors had the opportunity to complete one hot lap in three different vehicles and the average of those three lap times became their official time. It was really fun to drive each car and push them to the edge of my limits. With that said, I somehow managed to place Fifth among some stiff competition. This makes me want to finish my truck to have a little fun with the car guys and try to beat my best lap time. John Drummond of Goodguys expressed it best when he said that autocrossing “gets people into the event a lot more than sitting in a lawn chair. This was great!”

3/15I loved this ’56 Ford F-100 suited in a homemade patina paintjob. John Souza came all the way down from the hills of Pine Valley, CA, to show off the work he and PG Series of El Cajon, CA, did.

For those that enjoy a more relaxing environment and people watching, Saturday was the day to do it. The Fairgrounds had just about filled up by 10 a.m. and spectators loved to move among of classics of yesteryear. After I walked what seemed like 10 miles looking at not just trucks but everything that caught my attention, I wandered inside one of the buildings that was full of show-stopping rides. The vendor area was the next stop and the RideTech booth happened to be right outside one of the buildings. It was kind of cool to see the shock cutouts, and be able to turn the shock knobs on the adjustable shock display to see how they work. There were tons of other cool booths as well, like Edelbrock’s where you could mess with carburetors and talk tech stuff with the knowledgeable staff members. By Sunday the event was winding down, but not before the Goodguys award ceremony where event winners headed towards the winners circle. Goodguys gave out several awards including the one I always like to see: Early Truck of the Year. I’m am very glad I went this year and hope to continue to go for years to come. CT